Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said he cannot be certain at this point whether McCabe was fired by Attorney General Jeff Sessions for just cause. George Stephanopoulos, host of ABC’s "This Week," asked whether the Inspector General’s findings and the recommendation of FBI officials show that McCabe should have been terminated.

"Does the fact that the Inspector General did find that [McCabe] lacked candor in some of his responses and that his firing was recommended by career FBI officials, does that give you pause and does it suggest that, in fact, his firing was or may be justified?" Stephanopoulos asked.

"His firing may be justified," Schiff replied. "There's no way for us to know at this point, but even though it may have been justified, it can also be tainted."

Schiff also said Trump has harmed his case by publicly telling Sessions to get rid of McCabe, and he went on to draw attention to Trump and Republicans "targeting" associates of former FBI Director James Comey.

"I think the president's badgering of the attorney general, his urging that [McCabe] be fired before his pension could vest, and the fact that McCabe and every other of the James Comey associates, his general counsel, [James] Baker, his chief of staff, [James] Rybicki, who corroborate James Comey on the issue of potential obstruction of justice—every one of them has been targeted by the administration, by the Republicans in Congress, and is this because they corroborate James Comey?" Schiff asked.

]]>http://freebeacon.com/politics/schiff-mccabes-firing-may-be-justified/feed/0Gowdy on McCabe’s Firing: He ‘Undercut His Credibility All by Himself’http://freebeacon.com/politics/gowdy-on-mccabes-firing-undercut-credibility-himself/
http://freebeacon.com/politics/gowdy-on-mccabes-firing-undercut-credibility-himself/#respondSun, 18 Mar 2018 14:25:09 +0000http://freebeacon.com/?p=965866The post Gowdy on McCabe’s Firing: He ‘Undercut His Credibility All by Himself’ appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.
]]>Rep. Trey Gowdy (R., S.C.) said former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe "undercut his credibility all by himself" while discussing his firing on "Fox News Sunday."

Attorney General Jeff Sessions fired McCabe on Friday, over an unreleased internal report alleging McCabe directed FBI officials to speak to the press about a Clinton Foundation investigation and then misled investigators, according to CNN. President Donald Trump tweeted McCabe's dismissal was a "great day for democracy."

The firing drew outrage from Trump administration critics, who felt it was part of an effort to impeach McCabe as a witness in special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation. McCabe released a statement that his firing was an attempt to affect his credibility.

"Oh, Andy McCabe has undercut his credibility all by himself," Gowdy said after host Chris Wallace read part of McCabe's statement. "He didn't need any help doing that, and I find it richly ironic that he is lamenting that those are attacking the FBI when he himself does the exact same thing. It was the FBI who said he made an unauthorized disclosure and then lied about it."

"That wasn't President Trump," he added. "It wasn't me. It wasn't the crazy House Republicans. It was his own fellow FBI agents that said he leaked and then lied about it, so if he's got credibility issues, he need look no further than himself."

Gowdy added he would reserve full judgment on the matter and the proportionality of the punishment until the Justice Department's Inspector General's report, but he said agency members didn't get to choose when to tell the truth.

"Make no mistake. The FBI is who recommended that he be fired. It wasn’t crazy House Republicans and it wasn’t the Trump administration," Gowdy said. "It was his own fellow bureau agents."

]]>http://freebeacon.com/politics/gowdy-on-mccabes-firing-undercut-credibility-himself/feed/0Attorney General Sessions Fires Former FBI No. 2 McCabehttp://freebeacon.com/politics/attorney-general-sessions-fires-former-fbi-no-2-mccabe/
http://freebeacon.com/politics/attorney-general-sessions-fires-former-fbi-no-2-mccabe/#respondSat, 17 Mar 2018 02:28:49 +0000http://freebeacon.com/?p=965815WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions fired Andrew McCabe, the FBI’s former No. 2 official who was deeply involved in the agency’s investigations of Hillary Clinton and Russia’s role in the 2016 U.S. election and was repeatedly criticized by President Donald Trump, he said on Friday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Friday fired Andrew McCabe, the FBI’s former No. 2 official who was deeply involved in the agency’s investigations of Hillary Clinton and Russia’s role in the 2016 U.S. election and was repeatedly criticized by President Donald Trump.

McCabe said in a lengthy statement that he believes he is being politically targeted because he corroborated former FBI Director James Comey’s claims that Trump tried to pressure him into killing the Russia probe.

Trump ousted Comey last year and later acknowledged in a televised interview that he fired Comey over "this Russia thing."

"Based on the report of the Inspector General, the findings of the FBI Office of Professional Responsibility, and the recommendation of the Department’s senior career official, I have terminated the employment of Andrew McCabe effective immediately," Sessions said in a statement.

McCabe’s dismissal came two days before his 50th birthday, when he would have been eligible to retire from the Federal Bureau of Investigation with his full pension. The firing – which comes nine months after Trump fired Comey – puts McCabe’s pension in jeopardy.

It also is likely to raise questions about whether McCabe received an overly harsh punishment due to political pressure by the Republican president, who has blasted McCabe on Twitter and called for his ouster.

Comey’s firing paved the way for Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to tap Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who is now leading the investigation into possible collusion between Trump’s campaign and Russia. Trump has denied there was any collusion.

"I am being singled out and treated this way because of the role I played, the actions I took, and the events I witnessed in the aftermath of the firing of James Comey," McCabe said in his statement.

"This attack on my credibility is one part of a larger effort … to taint the FBI, law enforcement, and intelligence professionals more generally."

McCabe had stepped down from his position as FBI deputy director in January but remained on leave pending retirement.

His departure was triggered by a critical report from the Justice Department’s inspector general that eventually led to a recommendation that he be fired.

The report said McCabe misled investigators about his communications with a former Wall Street Journal reporter who was writing about McCabe’s role in probes tied to Clinton, including an investigation of the Clinton family’s charitable foundation.

In his statement, McCabe denied ever misleading investigators.

He added that the release of the inspector general’s report was "accelerated" after he testified behind closed doors before the U.S. House Intelligence Committee where he revealed he could back up Comey’s claims.

Comey’s firing has become central to questions about whether Trump unlawfully sought to obstruct the Russia investigation.

McCabe could potentially be a crucial witness in Mueller’s investigation.

]]>http://freebeacon.com/politics/attorney-general-sessions-fires-former-fbi-no-2-mccabe/feed/0Illegal Immigrant Acquitted in Katie Steinle Murder Case Accuses Government of Collusionhttp://freebeacon.com/politics/illegal-immigrant-acquitted-katie-steinle-murder-case-accuses-government-collusion/
http://freebeacon.com/politics/illegal-immigrant-acquitted-katie-steinle-murder-case-accuses-government-collusion/#respondFri, 16 Mar 2018 20:58:40 +0000http://freebeacon.com/?p=965617Jose Ines Garcia Zarate, an illegal immigrant acquitted in the 2015 shooting death of Kate Steinle in San Francisco, is accusing the federal government of collusion with state and city authorities and "vindictive prosecution."

]]>Jose Ines Garcia Zarate, an illegal immigrant acquitted in the 2015 shooting death of Kate Steinle in San Francisco, is accusing the federal government of collusion with state and city authorities and "vindictive prosecution."

Garcia Zarate's lawyers are demanding that the federal government present its communications with the local and state law enforcement in an attempt to prove collusion, the Washington Timesreported.

Garcia Zarate was acquitted on charges of murder and involuntary manslaughter by a jury on Dec. 1, 2017. His lawyer had argued that Garcia Zarate's shot had unintentionally ricocheted into Steinle. However, Attorney General Jeff Sessions subsequently announced a grand jury indicted the accused on charges of possession of a firearm and ammunition, and for possession as an illegal immigrant. He was sentenced to three years in prison, but was released early for time served.

In response to the jury's decision in December, President Donald Trump criticized the decision to acquit Garcia Zarate of involuntary manslaughter, tweeting that the decision was "a disgraceful verdict."

A disgraceful verdict in the Kate Steinle case! No wonder the people of our Country are so angry with Illegal Immigration.

Garcia Zarate's defense points to Trump's tweets and public statements as evidence of collusion between local and federal law enforcement. His lawyer said in a filing that Trump and Sessions were both using his client as a political punching bag, the Times reported. The filing accuses Trump and Sessions of treating Garcia Zarate as "the symbol of the dangers of illegal immigrants and the need for a wall between the United States and Mexico."

Garcia Zarate, a Mexican national, had been deported five times before he was arrested for the death of Steinle. Before his arrest in the Steinle case, federal immigration authorities wanted to deport Zarate a sixth time, but he was released from jail.

]]>http://freebeacon.com/politics/illegal-immigrant-acquitted-katie-steinle-murder-case-accuses-government-collusion/feed/0DOJ Announces Plan to Prosecute More Gun Crimes, Assist in Arming School Officialshttp://freebeacon.com/national-security/doj-announces-plan-prosecute-gun-crimes-assist-arming-school-officials/
http://freebeacon.com/national-security/doj-announces-plan-prosecute-gun-crimes-assist-arming-school-officials/#respondWed, 14 Mar 2018 09:00:41 +0000http://freebeacon.com/?p=963403Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced on Monday that the Department of Justice would begin work to better protect schools from attacks like the one that left 17 dead at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.

]]>Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced on Monday that the Department of Justice would begin work to better protect schools from attacks like the one that left 17 dead at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.

Sessions said the department would be taking a number of steps in support of the plan announced on the same day by the White House. He announced a new initiative to increase the number of school resource officers, provide firearms training to school personnel, and ramp up the number of gun crime prosecutions. He said the changes are necessary to keep school kids safe.

"No child should have to fear going to school or walking the streets of their neighborhood," Sessions said in a statement. "Today, I am directing the Department of Justice to take a number of new steps that will help make schools and the American people safer from the threat of gun violence."

He said the department's actions will ensure more criminals are disarmed and Americans are better protected.

"We are increasing the number of school resource officers, improving background checks and more aggressively prosecuting those who illegally attempt to purchase a firearm, and reviewing and enhancing the way our law enforcement agencies respond to tips from the public," Sessions said. "Under my tenure as attorney general, we have already increased federal gun prosecutions to a 10-year high—and we are just getting started.With these new measures in place, we are better positioned to disarm criminals and protect the law-abiding people of this country."

The DOJ plans to leverage existing programs like the National Training and Technical Assistance Center and VALOR initiative to support state and local efforts to provide firearms and situational awareness training to both law enforcement and school personnel. It also plans to prioritize grant applications for state and local requests to hire more school resource officers.

Sessions said the DOJ remains committed to Trump's plan of using current regulatory authority to reclassify, and effectively ban, bump-fire stocks and has already submitted notice of its plan to implement a new regulation to that end. He ordered federal prosecutors to "swiftly and aggressively" prosecute cases against felons and other prohibited persons who try to buy firearms but are unable to do so because they fail a background check—often called "lie and try" cases. He also touted the department's record of prosecuting violent crimes, which he said was at a record pace, and said the department would continue to increase those prosecutions.

Sessions also called on all federal agencies who submit records to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System to either certify over the next 45 days that they are currently reporting all of the criminal and mental health records required by law or have a plan to fix their procedures. Similarly, he called on state governments to improve reporting of their own disqualifying criminal and mental health records and said DOJ would provide them with reports on missing or mishandled information.

He ordered an immediate review of the way the department handles violent crime tips it receives in the wake of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's failure to follow up on several tips it received regarding the Parkland shooter's threats to shoot people.

Sessions said the DOJ would also help states who want to implement so-called Extreme Risk Protection Orders that allow family members or law enforcement to petition a judge for the ability to confiscate firearms for a limited period of time from an individual they have evidence is a threat to themselves or others.

The AG said the department would also fully participate in the Federal Commission on School Safety, which is set to be headed by Education Secretary Betsy Devos.

]]>http://freebeacon.com/national-security/doj-announces-plan-prosecute-gun-crimes-assist-arming-school-officials/feed/0Sessions to California: ‘We Have a Problem’ http://freebeacon.com/politics/sessions-california-problem/
http://freebeacon.com/politics/sessions-california-problem/#respondWed, 07 Mar 2018 18:40:35 +0000http://freebeacon.com/?p=959434Attorney General Jeff Sessions declared war on California's sanctuary state law and pledged to use "every power" he has to stop the state's politicians from pursuing what he referred to as its "lawless," "radical," and "irrational" "open-border" agenda.

]]>Attorney General Jeff Sessions declared war on California's sanctuary state law and pledged to use "every power" he has to stop the state's politicians from pursuing what he referred to as its "lawless," "radical," and "irrational" "open-border" agenda.

Addressing an audience of police officers and sheriffs in Sacramento, Sessions lambasted state officials for passing the sanctuary law last year, which puts sharp limits on how local law enforcement can communicate with federal immigration authorities.

"California is using every power it has—and some it doesn't—to frustrate federal law enforcement," he said. "So, you can be sure I'm going to use every power I have to stop them."

Sessions, who filed a lawsuit Tuesday night suing the state over the sanctuary law, stressed the Trump administration is not opposed to all immigration and doesn't want to "wall off America" from legal immigration. The U.S. admits 1.1 million immigrants lawful to permanent legal status every year, the highest levels in the world, he said.

Sessions, said during the speech that he is undeterred and called the Trump administration's policies of trying to arrest and deport illegal immigrants with criminal records "common sense" action that most American people support.

No "great nation," he said, can create incentives and "reward" those who unlawfully enter the country and jump ahead of immigrants who follow the rules and patiently wait their turn.

"We are going to fight these irrational, unfair and unconstitutional policies that have been imposed on you and our federal officers," he said. "We are fighting to make your jobs safer and to help you reduce crime in America. We are fighting to have a lawful system of immigration that serves Americans. And we intend to win."

Sessions paraphrased President Donald Trump's controversial statement that American citizens have "dreams too"—a reference to Trump's State of the Union reference to the plight of "dreamers"—illegal immigrants who came to the country as children by no choice of their own. The group avoided deportation via an executive order signed by President Barack Obama, but it faces uncertainty under Trump's more restrictive immigration policies.

Most Americans understand the country has to enforce its immigration laws or lose control of who enters the country and its ability to ferret out criminals and other threats to public safety, he said.

"They, our citizens, want our government to think about them for a change and to consider their interests," he said. "They have dreams too."

"Frankly, this common sense concept was a key factor in President Trump's election," he said. "Elections have consequences."

California Gov. Jerry Brown late Tuesday slammed Sessions for the lawsuit and bringing his polarizing message to California.

"At a time of unprecedented political turmoil, Jeff Sessions has come to California to further divide and polarize America," he said in a statement pinned to his Twitter page. "Jeff, these political stunts may be the norm in Washington, but they don't work here. SAD!!!"

Sen. Kamala Harris, (D., Calif.) was more succinct.

"Trump and Sessions think they can bully California—but it won't work," she tweeted.

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra vowed to fight the lawsuit and continue to push forward with the state's legal challenges to Sessions's threats to withhold federal grants from the state over the sanctuary policies.

"If someone tries to stop the sixth-largest economy in the world … we're going to be there to protect our state and protect our people," he told reporters on a conference call Tuesday night, according to Politico.

"We've seen this B-rated movie before, so I'm not totally surprised," he said of Sessions's actions.

Sessions, in his remarks Wednesday, ridiculed threats made by some California resistance activists that the state should secede from the union. He said the state shouldn't fight federal immigration law and invoked the Civil War as a lesson.

"The law is in the books and its purpose is clear," he said. "There is no nullification. There is no secession. Federal law is the ‘supreme law of the land.' I would invite any doubters to Gettysburg, and to the graves of John C. Calhoun and Abraham Lincoln."

"The United States of America is not ‘an idea;' it is a secular nation-state with a Constitution, laws, and borders, all of which are designed to protect our nation's interests. Surely, we should be able to agree on this much," he added.

Sessions also argued that California's sanctuary policies are endangering the lives of federal and local law enforcement offices and singled out Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf's decision to tip off immigrants to a recent raid by Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) officers as particularly egregious.

Quoting the acting director of ICE, Sessions said being a law enforcement officer is already dangerous enough, but "to give criminals a heads up that we're going in the next 24 hours increases that risk."

He said there are 800 wanted criminals at large in the Oakland community that ICE wanted to pursue, an action that is more dangerous now that it was previously.

"So, here's a message to Mayor Schaaf: How dare you. How dare you needlessly endanger the lives of law enforcement just to promote your radical open borders agenda," he said.

The immigration problems in California are bigger than just one mayor, he said, citing a January incident in which Ventura County declined a request from ICE to hold an illegal immigrant arrested for continuous sexual abuse of a child.

"Instead of being removed from the country, he was released back into the community and now our federal law enforcement will need to find him and arrest him wherever he may be," he said.

WASHINGTON/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – The U.S. Justice Department sued the state of California over so-called "sanctuary" policies that try to protect illegal immigrants against deportation, ramping up a confrontation over whether local police should enforce federal law.

The lawsuit, filed late Tuesday in federal court in Sacramento, the California state capital, takes aim at three state laws passed last year that the Justice Department contends violate the U.S. Constitution.

The issue of illegal immigrants has become increasingly heated since Donald Trump became president last year and signaled that he planned to target a wider swath of people for deportation.

Trump’s attorney general, Jeff Sessions, has made combating illegal immigration one of his top priorities since taking over the helm of the Justice Department in February 2017. A key part of that effort involves a crackdown on primarily Democrat-governed cities and states that Sessions claims are "sanctuaries" that protect illegal immigrants from deportation.

Sessions is expected to discuss the lawsuit during a speech on Wednesday morning in Sacramento. The Justice Department lawsuit cites a provision of the U.S. Constitution known as the "Supremacy Clause," under which federal laws trump state laws.

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra on Tuesday said law enforcement in the state is focused on public safety, not deportation. The Trump administration’s legal arguments are similar to those it has made in other cases, he said, and his office is prepared to address them.

"We’ve seen this ‘B’ rated movie before," Becerra said on a call with reporters.

Brown in October signed into law a bill that prevents police from inquiring about immigration status and curtails law enforcement cooperation with immigration officers.

"The Department of Justice and the Trump administration are going to fight these unjust, unfair and unconstitutional policies that have been imposed on you," Sessions plans to tell a group of law enforcement officers on Wednesday, according to prepared remarks seen by Reuters.

Early into his tenure, Trump signed an executive order that sought to block municipalities that failed to cooperate with U.S. immigration authorities from receiving federal grant funding.

However, the Justice Department’s attempts to implement the order to date have been stymied by lawsuits in the federal courts in Chicago, San Francisco and Philadelphia.

At issue is whether sanctuary cities are violating a federal law that requires them to share information about people they arrest with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.

One case is now on appeal, after a federal judge in San Francisco blocked Trump’s executive order to block funding to sanctuary cities.

Similar kinds of cases are under way in other parts of the country, including a case on appeal in Chicago after a federal judge issued a nationwide injunction barring the government from blocking grant money typically used to help local police combat violent crime and help victims.

The Justice Department’s lawsuit on Tuesday against California targets three state laws. One of them, known as Assembly Bill 450, prohibits private employers in California from voluntarily cooperating with federal immigration officials.

A second law, Senate Bill 54, prevents state and local law enforcement from giving federal immigration officials information about when they intend to release an illegal immigrant from their custody.

The third law empowers the state to inspect federal immigration detention centers.

The Justice Department filing says all three laws improperly attempt to regulate federal immigration at the state level. The department also plans to seek a court order from a judge to temporarily block the state from enforcing the laws.

]]>http://freebeacon.com/issues/u-s-justice-department-sues-california-sanctuary-policies/feed/0Gowdy: ‘I Have a Lot of Confidence’ in DOJ Inspector General to Hold McCabe Accountable for Leakshttp://freebeacon.com/politics/gowdy-lot-confidence-doj-inspector-general-hold-mccabe-accountable-leaks/
http://freebeacon.com/politics/gowdy-lot-confidence-doj-inspector-general-hold-mccabe-accountable-leaks/#respondSun, 04 Mar 2018 19:16:11 +0000http://freebeacon.com/?p=957472The post Gowdy: ‘I Have a Lot of Confidence’ in DOJ Inspector General to Hold McCabe Accountable for Leaks appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.
]]>Rep. Trey Gowdy (R., S.C.) on Sunday said that he has "a lot of confidence" in the Justice Department's inspector general Michael E. Horowitz to hold former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe accountable for leaks.

Gowdy appeared on Fox News' "Sunday Morning Futures" to discuss multiple issues, including Horowitz' investigation into McCable authorizing the disclosure of information about an ongoing investigation to journalists at the Wall Street Journal.

"What are you expecting from the inspector general report? Your take on this zeroing in on Andrew McCabe's action and the way this Hillary Clinton email probe was handled?" host Maria Bartiromo asked.

Gowdy said that he spoke with Horowitz last week, calling him an "honorable" person not to tell him what he has found.

"I'm a little amused that there's a leak about him finding a leak within the FBI," Gowdy said. " I want to know everything that happened in 2016 and whether Andy McCabe was leaking for or against Hillary Clinton. I think it's important for all of us to know."

"I have a lot of confidence in him. I think he's going to find out what happened in 2016 with respect to decisions made and not made, but I don't think it's fair to the Inspector General for us to guess about what's in his report based on media reporting," Gowdy added.

Bartiromo said that people would like to see "accountability" and asked Gowdy whether lawmakers let Clinton off the hook for the private email server investigation in 2016. She followed up by asking Gowdy whether he expected accountability.

" I do. I expect the inspector general to issue a fact-centric fair report. Look at what he has already found. He found the [Peter] Strzok and [Lisa] Page texts," Gowdy said. "Nobody else found that, so I think he is uniquely well-suited to tell us all what happened in 2016. We already know that the FBI and the Department of Justice handled this case differently."

"I think Michael Horowitz is uniquely well-suited to put all of the public's fears at ease with a thorough fact-centric investigation," Gowdy added.

FBI director Christopher Wray put pressure on McCabe to step down as deputy director in late January over concerns about the pending report. The Wall Street Journalrevealed in October 2016 that there was a dispute between the FBI and Justice Department over the investigation into the financial dealings of the Clinton Foundation.

]]>http://freebeacon.com/politics/gowdy-lot-confidence-doj-inspector-general-hold-mccabe-accountable-leaks/feed/0Sessions Defends DOJ From President’s Tweet Criticizing FISA Abuse Investigationhttp://freebeacon.com/politics/sessions-defends-doj-presidents-tweet-criticizing-fisa-abuse-investigation/
http://freebeacon.com/politics/sessions-defends-doj-presidents-tweet-criticizing-fisa-abuse-investigation/#respondWed, 28 Feb 2018 19:38:45 +0000http://freebeacon.com/?p=955306Jeff Sessions released a statement Wednesday afternoon in response to an attack that President Donald Trump directed at the attorney general over his handling of an inquiry into potential surveillance abuse.

]]>Jeff Sessions released a statement Wednesday afternoon in response to an attack that President Donald Trump directed at the attorney general over his handling of an inquiry into potential surveillance abuse.

In Trump's Wednesday morning tweet, he asked why Sessions is allowing the inspector general to investigate potential Justice Department abuse of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). Trump tweeted that the inspector general "Will take forever, has no prosecutorial power and already late with reports on Comey etc."

Why is A.G. Jeff Sessions asking the Inspector General to investigate potentially massive FISA abuse. Will take forever, has no prosecutorial power and already late with reports on Comey etc. Isn’t the I.G. an Obama guy? Why not use Justice Department lawyers? DISGRACEFUL!

Trump's tweet came after Sessions acknowledged Tuesday that the Justice Department would investigate alleged FISA abuses by the Obama administration Justice Department. The president and has argued the Obama administration used FISA to spy on his transition team.

Sessions released a statement in response to Trump's tweet, saying the Justice Department had "initiated the appropriate process" that will ensure complaints are "fully and fairly acted upon if necessary."

We have initiated the appropriate process that will ensure complaints against this Department will be fully and fairly acted upon if necessary. As long as I am the Attorney General, I will continue to discharge my duties with integrity and honor, and this Department will continue to do its work in a fair and impartial manner according to the law and Constitution.

The Justice Department's inspector general is Michael E. Horowitz, an official who has served in Republican and Democratic administrations and was uncontroversially confirmed as inspector general in 2012 by voice vote.

]]>http://freebeacon.com/politics/sessions-defends-doj-presidents-tweet-criticizing-fisa-abuse-investigation/feed/0DOJ Announces New Task Force to Crack Down on Opioid Manufacturershttp://freebeacon.com/issues/doj-announces-new-task-force-crack-opioid-manufacturers/
http://freebeacon.com/issues/doj-announces-new-task-force-crack-opioid-manufacturers/#respondTue, 27 Feb 2018 20:55:25 +0000http://freebeacon.com/?p=954604The Department of Justice will create a new task force to combat the surging opioid epidemic, focused in particular on the contributions of opioid manufacturers and distributors to the epidemic's rising death toll, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced Tuesday.

]]>The Department of Justice will create a new task force to combat the surging opioid epidemic, focused in particular on the contributions of opioid manufacturers and distributors to the epidemic's rising death toll, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced Tuesday.

The Prescription Interdiction and Litigation (PIL) Task Force is the latest move by the Sessions Justice Department in its ongoing fight against opioid abuse and associated crime. It will be charged with bringing federal law enforcement's considerable weight to bear on opioid producers who may have acted negligently or criminally in their production of additive drugs.

"The PIL Task Force will focus in particular on targeting opioid manufacturers and distributors who have contributed to this epidemic," Sessions said. "We will use criminal penalties. We will use civil penalties. We will use whatever tools we have to hold people accountable for breaking our laws."

Those penalties will be applied to large manufacturers of opioids, which a recent Senate report suggested paid some $9 million to advocacy groups to help encourage the prescription of opioid drugs for pain relief, often without regard for the potentially addictive side effects. Those manufacturers produce drugs such as hydrocodone and oxycodone, the overwhelming majority of which are consumed by Americans.

The PIL will focus not only on big pharma, but will also turn its attention to illicit production and distribution by smaller pharmacies and other distributors. Busting such pharmacies, often termed "pill mills," has been a special priority of the Drug Enforcement Agency, which notably seized almost 500,000 pills in one operation last December.

According to information provided by the Department of Justice, the PIL will include senior officials from the offices of the Attorney General, the Deputy Attorney General, and the Associate Attorney General, as well as senior officials from the Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys, the Civil Division, the Criminal Division, and the Drug Enforcement Administration. Those officials will work alongside other executive departments, especially the Department of Health and Human Services, to enact the PIL's ambit.

Perhaps the most significant move Sessions announced Tuesday, however, was his decision to have the Justice Department support the enormous, multi-district lawsuit brought by hundreds of cities, municipalities, and hospitals against opioid producers and distributors. That case, which some say mirrors past litigation against big tobacco firms, seeks to recover costs which the plaintiffs say they were forced to incur due to deceptive marketing practices which directly caused the opioid crisis.

The Justice Department will support that lawsuit by arguing that the federal government has also been force to bear those costs through federal health programs and through law enforcement efforts.

"The federal government has borne substantial costs as a result of the opioid crisis. The Medicare prescription drug program, for example, paid more than $4 billion for opioids in 2016. The hard-working taxpayers of this country deserve to be compensated by those whose illegal activity contributed to those costs. And we will go to court to ensure that the American people receive the compensation they deserve," Sessions said.

The department's latest commitments to fighting the epidemic come as news about the state of America's opioid addiction remains mixed at best. The latest data released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that while overdose deaths declined in 14 states over the first half of 2017, the total number of overdose deaths increased 14 percent over that same period. Some states saw increases in their overdose death rate as high as 30 percent, the CDC found.

In total, there were almost 64,000 drug overdose deaths in 2016 (the latest full year for which data are available), of which 66 percent—more than 42,000—were attributable to heroin, fentanyl, prescription, or other opioids. The opioid epidemic is responsible for a two-year decline in average U.S. life expectancy, the first such decline since the early 1960s.

Faced with these numbers, Sessions promised more action soon to come.

"These are not our last steps. We will continue to attack the opioid crisis from every angle. And we will continue to work tirelessly to bring down the number of opioid prescriptions, reduce the number of fatal overdoses, and to protect the American people," he said.